Museveni renews push for East African political federation

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has never hidden his goal of making the East African Community a unified polity. Yet, after trying and failing for the last two decades, the veteran leader is returning the agenda back on the table, seeking to influence peers in partner states to accommodate a political confederation, instead.

It is part of his to-do items as chair of the East African Community heads of state summit, the topmost decision-making organ of the eight-member bloc. Museveni took over the mantle from Kenya’s William Ruto earlier in April and seeks a united political front, as well as integrating Somalia into the Customs Union, and resolving security crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo as priority items.